SLI Performance
The performance of the MSI K8N Diamond Plus in our SLI gaming benchmarks is very competitive and at times class leading. The board displayed excellent stability throughout the benchmarking process and during actual game play. We noted the temperature of our 7900GTX cards were not above normal after extended testing or game play due in part to the two slot space in between the x16 slots. We provided CrossFire results as a high level comparison between the two platforms with the ATI solution providing strong results in games that typically favor their architecture and vice-versa for games that favor the NVIDIA architecture.
The performance pattern continues in the synthetic benchmarks with the MSI board providing very consistent performance figures compared to the other SLI offerings. It is interesting to note that based upon our graphic settings, the x8 SLI based Asus A8N is just as competitive as the x16 SLI based solutions. Basically, the performance of these Socket 939 boards is so close that your choice of manufacturer and core logic chipset should be based upon features, customer support, and overall product stability.
The performance of the MSI K8N Diamond Plus in our SLI gaming benchmarks is very competitive and at times class leading. The board displayed excellent stability throughout the benchmarking process and during actual game play. We noted the temperature of our 7900GTX cards were not above normal after extended testing or game play due in part to the two slot space in between the x16 slots. We provided CrossFire results as a high level comparison between the two platforms with the ATI solution providing strong results in games that typically favor their architecture and vice-versa for games that favor the NVIDIA architecture.
The performance pattern continues in the synthetic benchmarks with the MSI board providing very consistent performance figures compared to the other SLI offerings. It is interesting to note that based upon our graphic settings, the x8 SLI based Asus A8N is just as competitive as the x16 SLI based solutions. Basically, the performance of these Socket 939 boards is so close that your choice of manufacturer and core logic chipset should be based upon features, customer support, and overall product stability.
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LoneWolf15 - Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - link
There are TV tuner cards based on ATI's Theater 550 chip, Powercolor makes one, details can be found here:http://www.powercolor.com/product_series_Theater.h...">http://www.powercolor.com/product_series_Theater.h...
Gary Key - Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - link
We are currently reviewing the Powercolor T55E-P03 for an upcoming HTPC article. I think the results against the PCI cards will be interesting. ;-)LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - link
From what I've heard, there's little or no difference in performance. However, the Powercolor would be the card I'd consider for future-proofness.My only disappointment is it doesn't use ATI's Remote Wonder line of remote controls; they include an iR remote of their own choosing instead of the ATI RF model, IIRC.
nullpointerus - Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - link
Interesting, how? Better, worse, wierd, or just unspecified in a frustratingly vague kind of way? ;-)Gary Key - Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - link
Actual throughput was different than the PCI based card, not trying to be vague but I think the article we are putting together will explain it best, new benchmarks, software versus hardware, TV Tuners- single, dual, SD, and HD, single core CPU , dual core CPU, AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, ATI, MCE2005, Linux, PCI, PCI-E, USB, you know just the basics. ;-)
nullpointerus - Wednesday, April 12, 2006 - link
Cool, thanks. I'm looking forward to reading it.ceefka - Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - link
I don't quite get this one. I can imagine it would say something like 1394b can be had on a s939 Gigabyte board for less than $ 100,00 e.g. GA-K8NF9 Ultra. It seems Gigabyte is the only one with 1394b for s939.
Fact is though that there are few F800 devices out there. If you do have one of these, your mobo options are limited.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - link
It should have been "can't be very large" of course. I'm a bit befuddled on how that slipped in there, because I know I corrected that once before. Must have accidentally pasted over the original text at some point.... Ah, well - fixed now regardless.Myrandex - Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - link
I agree too, there is no reason for manufacturer's to not include this. Firewire B devices will not be mass produced without the users with Firewire B ports. I have a Giga-byte s939 SLI mobo with Firewire B on there and I do want to purchase an external enclosure that supports the standard (along with A and USB), but I also wish we would get some highly OCable boards from the likes of Asus or Abit etc. that provides this feature for the future. And also I believe the article is wrong about the price difference being very large, or else you wouldn't see Giga-byte squeezing these into ~$100 boards with other manufacturer's at the same price point including only A (or no firewire at all).Jason
Duplex - Friday, April 14, 2006 - link
1394B to the people!!! Couldn't agree more!--
I also must give credit to MSI for including a parallel and serial port.
There aren't that many people with a printerserver or USB-printer at home (I think).